Get a slice of real life with festival-touring documentaries

Meet Delhi’s sleep mafia in Cities Of Sleep

Shaunak Sen investigates how Delhi’s homeless sleep (pro tip: traffic breeze makes dividers a popular, mosquito-free spot) and how spaces like parking lots and park benches are monetised by the mafia. Sen adds philosophical layers to the stark film, which premiered in Asia at the International Documentary Festival in Taiwan this month.

Revisit the best of burlesque in League Of Exotique Dancers

Indian-Canadian Rama Rai’s probe of the golden era of burlesque opened at the 2016 Hot Docs Festival in Toronto this month. Using vintage footage and interviews with the (now middle-aged) “titans of tease”, she pieces together their part-sexy, part-sexist history.

Soar with kite runners in Famous In Ahmedabad

This year’s National Award-winner for best non-feature captures the mood of Uttaran, Gujarat’s colourful and crazed kite-flying festival. Director Hardik Mehta trails an ambitious nine-year-old kite runner devising strategies and jumping roofs to land the best terrace for his kite.

Face the reality of child miners in Fireflies In The Abyss

Also at Hot Docs this month was Chandrashekhar Reddy’s immersive telling of an 11-year-old’s plan to escape the hazardous ‘rat holes’ in Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya. The grim documentary brings the reality of the million-dollar coal industry, driven mostly by child labour, into plain view.

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